This one-day conference is focusing on social media’s impact on brands and consumer perception and will address such topics as:

- What are the best case studies of how leading brands manage their reputation?
- What are the leading insights and tactics to integrate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with Social Marketing?
- What are the most effective technologies/tools to help you listen, monitor, optimize, and engage via social media/social networking and SEO?
- How has crisis management changed as a result of real-time social communications such as Twitter and Facebook?
- How do leading brands organize themselves for optimal reputation management?
- How are the best organizations actively listening and participating in social conversations?
- What is the role of employees in strengthening your brand across the social web?
- How do you manage the challenge of effectively representing both your personal and business identities on the social web?

I’d be going even if I weren’t moderating a roundtable. What, you ask, am I going to be discussing? Why, I’ll tell you! My topic is “People Are Talking About You…But What Are They Saying? How To Be A Part Of The Consumer Conversation.” Neat, right? I think so! Click here to check out the list of sponsors; it’s impressive.

There’s still time to register, so if you’re going to be all up in New York tomorrow, I highly recommend you check it out. There will be speakers and moderators from companies both large and small across all sectors. If you’re passionate about protecting your brand (or doing better work for your clients), you owe it to yourself to attend.

Hope to see you there!

Location: City University of New York Graduate Center

Time: 8:00 AM-1:00 PM

Location: CUNY Graduate Center; 365 Fifth Avenue; New York, NY 10016

Registration Fee: $195

In just over an hour, Tiger Woods is scheduled to make a statement regarding his recent sexual shenanigans, car crash incident and the future of his career in golf.

When will celebrities and their publicists ever learn?

Unless Tiger plans to spill the details, TMZ-style, about his floozies, the public doesn’t really care. Unless he’s going to give us full disclosure, it’s irrelevant. This tightly-controlled PR stunt reeks of obviousness and is totally self-serving; we’re not dumb dumbs. This is about wooing back sponsors and restarting the money machine so he can replace that Escalade he totaled when his angry wife attacked him with his very own golf clubs.

The simple fact that he’s refusing to take questions from the press and will read a prepared statement in a closed setting tells us everything we need to know. Sure, he might be sorry, but this is so not the way to convince the world that he’s on the path to making personal and professional amends in a sincere and active manner.

It’s great he’s in rehab for his problems. 6 weeks in an intense treatment program worked for me, but it damn well took more than a couple of months for me to get my head together. A straight up “I’m sorry, please forgive me, I know I screwed up and disappointed my family and fans” message is all nice and good, Mr. Woods, but give us a little more credit. Until you’re ready to get honest – REALLY honest – with yourself and your wife, it doesn’t really matter what we think. Take your time, dude. The world will be here when you get your house cleaned and in order. Everything else can wait.